Internet Memes, Memory, and Orders of Repackaging

The present study explores the construction of humor in internet memes along two dimensions. The external dimension is concerned with humor in internet memes as opposed to verbal humor on the one hand and as opposed to humor in comics and caricatures on the other. The perceptive differences, stemming from the workings of the human memory, and the medium are posited as the two main differentiating factors. On the internal dimension, we explore manifestations of humor in light of the communicative situation and taxonomic relations at both the intermedial and intramedial levels of internet memes, taking as an example a family of You Wouldn’t Get It image macros. Our analysis employs elements of intertextuality theory and the notion of orders of indexicality. The study aims to contribute to the growing theoretical and methodological framework for multifactorial analyses of internet memes.

Learning Non-Taxonomic Relations of Ontologies

Ontologies, as semantic knowledge representation, have a crucial role in various information systems. The main pitfall of manually building ontologies is effort and time-consuming. Ontology learning is a key solution. Learning Non-Taxonomic Relationships of Ontologies (LNTRO) is the process of automatic/semi-automatic extraction of all possible relationships between concepts in a specific domain, except the hierarchal relations. Most of the research works focused on the extraction of concepts and taxonomic relations in the ontology learning process. This article presents the results of a systematic review of the state-of-the-art approaches for LNTRO. Sixteen approaches have been described and qualitatively analyzed. The solutions they provide are discussed along with their respective positive and negative aspects. The goal is to provide researchers in this area a comprehensive understanding of the drawbacks of the existing work, thereby encouraging further improvement of the research work in this area. Furthermore, this article proposes a set of recommendations for future research.

Lexicalized forms of the Russian perception verbs as a constructional family

In the present study, lexicalized forms of the Russian perception verbs are treated from the construction grammar perspective. The lexicalized forms were drawn from the modern dictionaries of Standard Russian and supplied with appropriate usage examples from the Russian National Corpus. The paper presents a detailed overview of the forms concerned, encompassing both their formal and semantic features. Each lexicalized form is argued to be a construction, in the special sense accorded to the term in construction grammar. Moreover, not only lexicalized forms as listed in the dictionaries but also their specific instantiations (allowing for the variability of the verb form and the addition of extra elements, e.g., particles) are claimed to be constructions. The paper particularly focuses on the analysis of manifold relations between constructions. In construction grammar, this problem has been given scanty coverage, scholars largely concentrating on taxonomic relations between more and less schematic constructions. This particular type of relations can be said to manifest itself in the links between lexicalized forms and their instantiations. However, the data at hand make it possible to identify a number of other relations. These include the links between lexicalized forms and the corresponding verb as well as semantic relations including homonymy and polysemy, complete and partial synonymy. Taken together, they form an integrated network of relations, both formal and semantic. This is natural, given the fact that the corresponding verbs belong to the same lexical group. The paper argues for the term constructional family to be used in such cases. The constructional family is thus a subset of constructional networks.

Ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in fumarole fields of Kunashir Island, Kuril Archipelago, Russia

Five species of ground beetles are permanent inhabitants of the fumarola fields on Kunashir Island: Cicindela (Cicindela) sachalinensis A. Morawitz, 1862; Cylindera (Eugrapha) elisae (Motschulsky, 1859); Bembidion (Ocydromus) dolorosum (Motschulsky, 1860); B. (Peryphanes) sanatum Bates, 1883, and Poecilus (Poecilus) samurai (Lutshnik, 1916). These species respond differently to extreme conditions. In some species, the size is decreased (C. elisae, B. dolorosum), but is increased in P. samurai; in B. dolorosum, the pigmentation is decreased, while increased in others (C. sachalinensis, C. elisae, P. samurai). The degree of these variations depends neither on taxonomic relations nor the adaptation time. The areas of moderate thermal activity of Kunashir volcanoes could have served as refugia during the colder climatic periods. Based on data on the variability and barcoding of B. dolorosum, the following new synonymy is established: Bembidion (Ocydromus) dolorosum (Motschulsky, 1860) = Bembidion (Ocydromus) negrei Habu, 1958, syn. nov. = Bembidion (Peryphus) kuznetsovi Lafer, 2002, syn. nov.

Genetic Diversity of Potyviruses Associated with Tulip Breaking Syndrome

Tulip breaking is economically the most important viral disease of modern-day tulip growing. It is characterized by irregular flame and feather-like patterns in the flowers and mosaic on the foliage. Thirty-two leaf samples were collected from cultivated tulip plants showing tulip breaking syndrome from Hungary in 2017 and 2018. Virus identification was performed by serological (ELISA) and molecular (RT-PCR) methods. All samples proved to be infected with a potyvirus and evidence was provided that three potyvirus species could be identified in the samples: Lily mottle virus (LMoV), Tulip breaking virus (TBV) and Rembrandt tulip-breaking virus (ReTBV). Recombination prediction accomplished with Recombination Detection Program (RDP) v4.98 revealed potential intraspecies recombination in the case of TBV and LMoV. Phylogenetic analyses of the coat protein (CP) regions proved the monophyletic origin of these viruses and verified them as three different species according to current International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) species demarcation criteria. Based on these results, we analyzed taxonomic relations concerning potyviruses associated with tulip breaking syndrome. We propose the elevation of ReTBV to species level, and emergence of two new subgroups in ReTBV.

Seed morphology in the genus Iris (Iridaceae) from Russia

The genus Iris in Russia is represented by 41 species. Four species are endemic, 11 are included in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation and 30 have different regional conservation status. The presented results of the study of the morphology of seeds and of seed coat surface morphology in 40 species from the genus Iris growing in Russia were obtained mainly using light and scanning electron microscopy. Seed shape is round, ovate, oblong or pear‑shaped, with the exception for I. psammocola, in which it is club‑shaped. The smallest seeds in the studied species belong to I. ruthenica and I. uniflora. Morphometric data lead to interesting conclusions regarding the taxonomic relations between some species. For example, the species currently considered as synonyms, e.g., I. biglumis and I. pallasii in I. lactea, and I. maackii in I. pseudacorus, are found different concerning seed morphology. On the other hand, the taxonomically well distinct species such as I. halophila and I. pseudonotha share similar seed morphology. A study of the morphological characteristics of the seed coat surface in 40 species of the genus Iris made it possible to compile an atlas for determining species in the genus Iris in Russia.